The look of a poem (Robert Lax)

Here's an excerpt from a letter Robert Lax wrote to Susan Howe in 1975:

"the look of the poem: i've always
liked the
idea of a poem or a word as a single
(arp-like image)
alone on a page

(an object of contemplation)

i like white space &
i like to see a vertical
column centered
sometimes verticality helps in
another way
image follows image
as frame follows frame
on a film

verticality helps the
poet withhold his
image until
(through earlier
images) the
mind is prepared
for it.


(quoted by Paul J. Spaeth - Curator of the Lax Archives at St. Bonaventure University - in his introduction to A Thing That Is by Robert Lax, 1997. A stimulating and beautifully contemplative collection, I find.)